Paris Haute Couture: Versace spring/summer 2012

Lindsey Wixson models a creation from Versace's first couture show since 2004. Photo: AP

That smash hit collaboration between Versace and H&M last winter is still having reverberations. The influx of cash must have been handy and the affirmation that Versace is still a relevant name to the public at large will have been welcome to a house that hasn't always been surefooted in its product strategy. But most of all "it made me realise i had to come back to Paris to show that Versace is a couture house" said Donatella Versace backstage this morning.

It has been almost eight years since Versace last performed on the couture high wire, although the atelier remained open to private clients throughout. Returning to the spotlight now might seem a perverse act - but only if you haven't been parsing the business pages diligently.

Those luxury brands who are sticking to their guns and doing what luxury is meant to do - coddle, mollify and reassure the insulated super-rich - are thriving . "The world needs glamour," added Versace, "and I missed couture".

And she's well placed to provide it; just 15 looks, but each a corseted, beaded, embroidered, sculpted monument to what Versace called "glamorous warriors," although with her accent, it sounded at first as though she'd done a brief for glamorous lawyers.

In many ways it was classic, well trodden Versace territory, but the limited colour palatte - steel grey, fizzing sulphurous lemon, tangerine and one solitary bustier dress in gold leather that was laser cut into delicate lace tracery and worn by a fierce looking Arizona Muse - made it look tough and modern. Perspex panniers on the orange dress brought to mind Christopher Kane - no bad thing.

But did i say modern? Only up to a point. Tightly bound and shod in the highest, spikiest, backless gaiter-boots, the models were very movement-challenged, especially when it came to marching down that photogentic flight of gold metal stairs. By the end they'd evolved a sideways crab-step of dubious elegance. But come Oscars - and that's surely where these are heading - these dresses just have to look good straight on. Job done.